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Community Engagement

Port Hope Council’s Community Engagement workshop on Wednesday, April 15th was a tremendous success with more than 250 people in attendance at the Town Park Recreation Centre. Download the Agenda here

Mayor Bob Sanderson opened the session with a summary of Council’s three-month review of Municipal operations and finances. Attendees were then invited to circulate to displays for each Municipal department to speak with Councillors and Municipal Staff, ask questions, and learn more about core Municipal services.

Each department developed an information sheet to provide an overview of their operations and key contact information:

Attendees were also asked for their input on prioritizing eight proposed opportunities, to provide some context on what the community wants to see as one or more objectives for Council to focus on. Each person was given four dot stickers (three red and one blue) and asked to place the red dots to indicate their priorities and the blue to indicate their communication preference.

The final tally was as follows:

What are your priorities for Port Hope?

Reduced operating costs - 80

Developing the Ganaraska River as a primary recreational asset attracting visitors - 92

Infrastructure requirements - 36

Increasing our Municipal financial reserves - 12

Addressing all Ward issues - 87

Communication and transparency - 47

Public Transit - 13

Economic growth strategies - 70

How would you like to receive information from the Municipality?

Regular Mail - 8

Municipal website - 39

Email - 65

Newspaper Notices - 21

Social Media - 3

Mayor Bob Sanderson stated, “The positive approach, passion for the community and level of engagement was superb. The public was completely engaged and spent a lot of time speaking with Staff and learning more about Municipal operations. Our Staff put a great deal of effort into the initiative and the results were apparent all around. All the feedback I have already received is that the event went over and above expectations and there was a real “wow” factor. This is exactly the kind of enthusiasm Council hoped for in planning this session and we want to maintain that momentum going forward. This is the first of many community engagement activities to come and we look forward to the high level of public participation that we saw last evening.”

Council made a commitment early in their term to a collaborative process that focuses on public consultation and feedback for informed decision making. The engagement session is the first step in developing a vision for Port Hope as the basis for future projects, programs and initiatives.